Means for replenishing packs of laminate material



Uck. 14. 1924. LMLfiM J. w. FREE MEANS FOR REPLENISHING PACKS OF LAMINATE MATERIAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 23, 1923 m m w 3* 3 F FIELI- J. W. FREE MEANS FOR REPLENISHING PACKS OF LAMINATE MATERIAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 23 1923 FIB M- FBEJII FHEIMI WITNESSES- Patented Uct, 14, I924.

tll i tl lifi JOHN W. FREE, OF VJOODLAWN, IPENNSYLVALN'IA.

Application filed May 23, 1923.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN W. Finns, residing at IVoodlawn, in the county of Beaver and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Replenishing Packs of Laminate Material, of which improvements the following is a specification.

My invention relates to means for replenishing packs of laminate material. It finds practical application in industry, where as operation progresses plates of metal are removed one by one from the exposed face of a pack and where need is, to replenish the pack from below, so that the recurrent operation of removal of the topmost plate shall not be interfered with.

In an application for Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 594,014, filed October 12, 1922, I have described apparatus for feeding one by one from a bosh to a tin pot plates of steel which stand on end in a pack within the bosh. My present invention finds particular application in this apparatus, in the replenishing of the pack of plates within the bosh. It will be under stood that the invention is not in any way limited to nor dependent on cooperation with a tin pot but is applicable wherever metal plates are taken one by one from a pack and where conditions make replenishment from beneath desirable.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. I is a view in vertical section of the feed apparatus of a tin pot. This apparatus includes a bosh, within which a pack of plates is shown standing on edge, and the means wherein my present invention is found for replenishing that pack, are in this figure shown in correlation with other parts. Figs. II and III are views in plan and in side elevation of a certain fork which, cooperating with other carts presently to be indicated constitutes the means of my invention. Fig, IV is a view in transverse section through the bosh, in the plane indicated by the line IV-IV, Fig. I.

In these drawings a tin pot is fragmentarily shown at 1, and, adjacent the pot, but at suitable distance and suitably disposed, is a bosh 2. This bosh is adapted to be filled with water, and to carry submerged within it a pack of plates S. The pack normally Serial No. 640,885.

supported from below, stand on edge inclined from the vertical in a direction away from the pot.

Between bosh 2 and tin pot 1 extends an arched skidway 11. A. swinging arm 5 carr1es extensible upon it a head equipped with a pair of suction cups. The swinging" arm being in proper position, the head is extended and the suction cups engage near its upper edge the topmost sheet of the pack S. The head is then retracted. In retraction the head raises the plate from thepack, swinging it toward. truly vertical position, and opens a space between the plate and the next underlying plate of the pack. The arm 5 then swings and lifts the engaged plate edgewise from the bosh and advances it alongskidway 11. Other instrlnnentalities manage the plate, and by them in turn it is carried through its course over skidwav 11, until at length engaged. from behind by pusher 4-. it is carried into and advanced. within. the tin pot.

It is to be remarked that when the eaten sihle head upon arm 5, having by means of its suction cups powerfully engaged a plate, and having by retraction. drawn it aside, begins to swing and in swinging begins to raise the plate, the weight of water occupy ing the i shaped space between the plate engaged and the rest of the pack, tends to strip this one plate free of all adhesions to the next underlying; plate.

My invention, as I have said, concerns the replenishing of such a pack as this, and re plenishing it from beneath, so that there need be no intermission nor interference with the free operation of the transfer means acting on the top of the pack.

to the range of extension of the suction-cup equipped head upon arm 5 is automatically variable, so that the apparatus adapts itself to a varying condition, so far as concerns minute position of and depth of the the pack of plates,

Within the bosh 2 the pack 5*? of plates rests not on the bottom of the bosh but on a carrier 40, which sustains them raised at an interval above the bottom of the bosh. The support afforded by the carrier is not continuous along the lower edge of the pack; space is left for the introduction of a certain fork into the bosh, to the position and for stands in the position indicated, the plates, the P pose presently to be explained.

As explained in the specification alludech The rear wall of the bosh, the wall to which the numeral 2 is immediately applied, does not present to the pack a plane surface. The pack rests instead upon a plurality of vertically extending ribs 41, and between these ribs are spaces, left for the'introduction of and the functioning of the fork just alluded to, as presently will be we plainedQ The carrier 40 may be borne by the ribs v41, or some of them, and the ribs to which the. carrier is secured may be extensible, as indicated, adapting the apparatus to carry and deal with plates of various sizes. ,15

duced between'the ribs 41 and beyond the carrier 40, while a pack of plates S is in the bosh.

l/Vhenv the pack of plates S within the bosh is to be replenished, the fork 43 is introduced. As it is thrust downward into the bosh, between ribs 41 and beyond carrier 40, the ends of its tines engaging the wedge blocks 42 are by their wedge-shaped faces guided and brought to the position shown, relatively to the pack. hen the fork has so been introduced into the bosh, its upper end may be swung to the left, as seen in Fig. I. In such swinging of the fork, the whole pack is lifted from the ribs 41. The fork may be provided at its upper 7 end with hooks'44, and a bar 45 may be provided on some stationary part ofthe structure, so that the fork may be secured in the pack-sustaining position shown in Fig. I.

When the fork is so sustaining the pack,

/a fresh supply of plates may be slipped to place to the rear'of fork 43, and between it and ribs 41. This space into which new supplies of plate'smay be slipped is, as

will be perceived, a tape-ring space, wider above, which makes the introduction of freshplates easy. And it is manifest that the newly entering plates make room for themselves as may be necessary, by lifting the pack as they come to place.

hen sufficient replenishn'ient has been made the fork may be left for the time as it is, or it may be withdrawn, or being withdrawn it may be thrust into the bosh again, to the rear of the newly introduced plates, and between the ribs 41, the tips of its prongs overlying blocks 42, and ready for the next swing forward, or it may at once be swung forward and hooked upon bar 45. Whatever its position, the operation of taking the plates one by one from the pack will in no manner be interrupted nor interfered with.

. I claim as my invention:

1. In apparatus-for feeding sheets of material one by one from a relatively stationary pack, means for replenishing from beneath the pack of sheets, such means including in combination with two pack supports a fork, the two pack supports being arranged transversely one to the other and adapted to sustain a pack resting broadside upon one and edgewise upon the other, the support upon which the pack makes broadside resting being ribbed, the fork being adapted to be thrust beneath the pack and between the ribs of the support last named, and the support upon which the pack makes edgewise engagement being adapted to sustain the pack when by the swinging of the fork the pack is raised from the companion support.

2. In a tin-pot feeding apparatus a bosh provided within with a ribbed and inclined support for a pack of plates, a carrier extending transversely of said support and adacent said support at its lower end and adapted to sustain agalnst edgewlse slipplng a pack of plates within and at an interval 1 its tines passing down between the ribs of the support and engaging the said block.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN IV. FREE. Witnesses F. HARTLEY LUNK, G. L. LANE. 

